New project. Help us help you!

I would like to ask you: the Ridemonkey public, to help us finish creating a tool for you. www.virtualdescent.com

For those that are not familiar with us. We are a bike shop located in Seattle Wa. We are involved with all things bike.
A few of our major outlets are instruction, training, retail, camps and so on. We have also formed a six member factory race team this year. And a PNW race series the Fluidride Cup, which you will hear about formally in the very near future.

To my point. One of our other major projects this past year has been a website we have been developing to bring mountainbiking (as we know it) to the public. The site is functioning now, but it is still in it's relative infancy stages and there are a lot of glitches to be worked out. We have not released the site to the general public yet- as we want it to be a bit more polished before we do so. Basically we are mountainbikers, not web designers.

The goal is to bring HD quality headcam footage to you. Wherever that may be. Your home, office, couch, wherever. And we have tons of footage stored already, shot by myself and many other riders. Eventually the main content will be by monthly membership of $9.99 per month. And the goal is to have fresh content up every week if not more frequently. Now I'm not trying to sell the site or memberships. I'm trying to get feedback in functionality. This is where you come in, I am looking for feedback about the site, whether positive or negative. Please keep it constructive. There are tools installed that will allow the content to be based around the viewers request. Let me know what you think.

We have 4 HD camers in service right now and three are currently checked out and in use. We have shot trail all over the US, Canada, and Europe. We are even offering the ability for you to shoot footage, edit it, upload it, and get paid as a producer.

Once a month we will upload instructional downloads as well.

As of now there are teasers (the videos with image icons), and premium content (the videos with the VD logo).
The teasers can be viewed by anyone, and the premium content requires you to fill out some general information in the sign up form.
NOTE: We are not using this for spam, it is just how the template is setup. You won't have to pay at all to see everything. We can't change this and I apologize, but I promise it's not used for tracking.

Anyway I just want to hear what you think. And what I hear here will be used in further developement. There is a lot of potential and the content we can upload is virtually limitless.

What makes your footage better than what we can buy on DVD? At 120 dollars a year, you could buy a good amount of professional movies.

You could include maps of where the trails are so the service also shows people where to ride and plan possable road trips in areas people may be unfamiliar with. With all the free video services like youtube out, I believe that you need to do something more than just offer HD video to make people feel they want to pay for your service.

Yeah I think a big map of the world with pin-ups so to speak of where different filming took place would be cool, that way everyone can see a trail before they plan to go and ride it. Like how when I watch NWD8 or Roam or something I think, "Gee, where's that trail? I want to ride it!" so you might try that?

EDIT: Although, to be straight with you...$9.99 is a bit much for me. Something simple like $20 a year is what I would like to see (Thats what I pay for my flickr account...), because the only way people will pay is if they can afford, and the more people who can afford, the more money.

Yeah I think a big map of the world with pin-ups so to speak of where different filming took place would be cool, that way everyone can see a trail before they plan to go and ride it. Like how when I watch NWD8 or Roam or something I think, "Gee, where's that trail? I want to ride it!" so you might try that?

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Yeah and say "hmm I've never been to Whistler before, what kind of tire setup do I need. Well let's see"
That's the idea.

Always good to see new stuff poping up like this. I thought doing something very similar awhile back. I think you might be somewhat hard pressed to get anyone to pay until you get a lot more content up.

Internet content is hard to charge people for (unless its porn) and i'd bet you'd be better off getting sponsors perhaps to foot the bill of the subscription costs instead to be more successfull. I'm sure you'll figure something out though.

Always good to see new stuff poping up like this. I thought doing something very similar awhile back. I think you might be somewhat hard pressed to get anyone to pay until you get a lot more content up.

Internet content is hard to charge people for (unless its porn) and i'd bet you'd be better off getting sponsors perhaps to foot the bill of the subscription costs instead to be more successfull. I'm sure you'll figure something out though.

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I worked for a company doing this way back in 1999/2000 called hardcloud.com . They have a few million in VC from the dotcom bubble to burn. They went bankrupt.

You just can't charge for content like this and have it work, especially not on a subscription model. I could see it working much better at 99c a video or something.

Edit: Apparently they are a sports clothing oriented website now. I Believe one or 2 of the same guys are running it. Funny stuff.

One model that might work is to offer a lower quality version of the video for free (perhaps say 1-2min clip), then charge say .25c for a high quality full version.

There's just too many free resources that offer a decent view of most places to try and charge a subscription price, or $2 each video that you're not sure what you're paying for.

It's a lot of work, and you'd really have to have it nailed down I feel to make it work.

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They literally were paying insane amounts of money to go around and shoot trails, do brief writeups. Basically to stock the DB.

It was a great idea. It was before internet advertising was mature, otherwise it would have been a great success without the subscription model. They did MTB, Backcountry snowboarding/skiing, surf spots, rock climbing routes etc.

I know I would personally never spend $10 a month to watch web sized/quality videos. I could see myself spending $1 to see a race course 2 weeks in advance or something though. Then lease the video out to media sites to carry with their coverage or something.

I tend to agree that 10 bucks a month is not gonna work. The thing that bothers me is that it sorta takes away the exploration and mystery of a new trail. I kinda like the word of mouth or something as simple as Gutsploder where you have a few pics of a trail but not the whole thing layed out to where you have no surprises when you get there. I think the general idea is a good one though. If I was visiting someplace far from home and wanted to see what the riding was like, a site with "trail teasers" would be cool. I think you guys are going to have to make it free and have it advertising based if you want to make any money at all. I really think you guys will do well with an elaborate instructional site which I thought you guys were working on? Good luck!

We've been trying hard to change the site so it is easier to navigate.
There are also tons of new videos up.
If you click on the "most recent" tab it will display the videos in sequential order by upload.

Looks like Simon was getting away from you on Syncline Cool site, you might consider running some google ads to help with revenue. Will they let you setup a deal like they have on youtube.com? Where the ad scrolls across the bottom of the video? If so, that would be the model to follow